Sunday Gravy: Mike Donnelly has SCSU among D-II Elite

Coach Mike Donnelly has taken a Southern Connecticut State program which won 34 games from 2001-09 to 30 wins this season and a berth in the NCAA Division II tournament’s Elite Eight. If the Owls manage to win the whole thing, Register sports columnist Chip Malafronte is calling for a statue to be erected on the SCSU campus.
Arnold Gold — Register file photo

My NCAA bracket survived roughly 28 hours. It will not advance. No one to blame but me for being busted, but I thought New Mexico was due.

• A bronze bust of James Moore sits on the second level of the Southern Connecticut State field house named in honor of the school’s old baseball coach and physical education department head. If SCSU wins the Division II national championship this week, the school may want to consider collecting donations to add another for Mike Donnelly.

In just his fourth season, Donnelly has taken Southern to the Elite Eight for only the second time ever. How dramatic of a turnaround has it been? Four years ago, the men’s basketball program was in shambles. You may recall the bizarre three-year suspension of longtime coach Art Leary, who finally accepted a buyout in 2009. Or the year interim coach Jerry DeGregorio failed to show for an entire season, leaving Marc Rybczyk as the interim to the interim.

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Southern won 34 games, combined, between 2001 and 2009. They’ve won 30 heading into Wednesday’s game with Central Missouri in Evansville, Ind. Once the prototype for college basketball dysfunction, Donnelly has made the Owls a national power in four short years.

Forget the bronze bust. If Southern wins a championship, it should consider a full-bodied statue.

• The ECAC Hockey tournament returned to Lake Placid, N.Y., after a 12-year hiatus, the past three spent in the hockey purgatory that is Atlantic City, N.J. While a small segment of those who closely follow the conference had absolutely no problem with AC’s extensive dining and gambling options, *cough* me *cough*, it was obvious the remote location and uninterested denizens made little sense for a league with a majority of its fan base centered in upstate New York.

Lake Placid is the anti-Atlantic City, and this weekend was a homecoming. The village embraces the tournament with open arms. Dozens of hotels and restaurants are within walking distance of the arena. Many of the old Olympic venues are open for public use. And, of course, there are the hallowed grounds of Herb Brooks Arena, site of the greatest upset in sports history. The rink has changed little since the 1980 Winter Games — same hard plastic red seats, same old scoreboard. It’s not hard to close your eyes and envision the events of the Miracle on Ice.

The building wasn’t quite full — around 4,400 for Quinnipiac and Colgate Friday night — but the atmosphere was infinitely better than the cavernous arenas of Albany and Atlantic City. If Big East basketball and Madison Square Garden was a postseason match made in heaven, the ECAC and Lake Placid isn’t far behind.

• We noted in this space last week that Jim Calhoun sounded like someone either very interested in returning to coaching or desperate to remain relevant. Now, we’re sure of it. Retirement rarely douses the competitive fire of athletes and coaches; for those who’ve enjoyed massive success, like Calhoun, being out of the spotlight can ignite those old desires, especially around March Madness.

• Whatever happened to Howard Johnson’s restaurants? One minute, it seemed they were everywhere. Apparently, the only two remaining are in Lake Placid and Bangor, Maine, and both are for sale. So, while in Lake Placid, I had to visit. It was like stepping back into the 1960s. Well, my vision of the 60s, which is based on reruns of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie. Lots of wood paneling and orange vinyl seat cushions. Yep, if Alice was ever allowed a night off, it’s not hard to imagine the Brady Bunch eating dinner here.

Food wasn’t bad either. The all-you-can-eat buffet wasn’t open that night, but my surf-and-turf (steak and surprisingly tasty clam strips) included soup, salad, mashed potatoes and gravy. Even with coffee and a slice of fresh-baked apple pie, the bill came to $13.49. No complaints. But maybe that’s a reason they’ve almost all gone out of business.

• Classy gesture by Coach K, who visited the opposing dressing room to offer congratulations to Mercer moments after they upset Duke. Those kids will remember that as vividly as winning the game. Mike Krzyzewski knows exactly who he is.

• Not sure which I enjoyed more. The four-year-old grandson of St. Joseph’s basketball coach Phil Martelli doing impressions of his grandpa, or realizing Martelli in a sports coat and tie is a dead ringer for Peter Boyle in “Young Frankenstein.”

• It’s been 11 years since the last time someone jumped directly from Yale to the NHL, though Chris Higgins had an offseason and full training camp to prepare. Kenny Agostino had a whirlwind five days between the Bulldogs’ season-ending loss at Quinnipiac and his NHL debut Friday with the Calgary Flames.

“The turnaround was so quick,” Agostino said Tuesday, hours after flying from New Haven to Calgary. “I’m just excited for whatever opportunity presents itself and plan to keep my eyes and ears open for as long as I’m here. ...I still can’t believe how fast everything happened.”

• Video of the Miracle on Ice runs on a continuous loop at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. Thirty-four years later, it still draws a crowd.

• There are petitions to declare the Monday after the Super Bowl and Major League Baseball opening day as national holidays. But if we’re looking to designate a sports holiday, for our money, you can’t top the opening Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament as the precursor to a glorious four-day weekend on the couch. Even if your brackets never make it past the round of 32.